These actual people — and not the yellers or the posturers, the outraged or the politically jaded — have fed my interest in this subject for decades.

But right-wing posturers insist that there is no excuse, ever, for such an egregious dereliction of parental duty.

The stand-up-straight brigade, however, often make a further claim: that posture affects the way the posturer treats himself, as well as how others treat him.